haw001

I also think that there is some benefit to starting with a thin oil as the engine should be completely clean of any oil before assembly, and the thin oil will help to coat all the little areas better on first start.

I've hear many methods from many different people, including a number of engine builders. Most don't bother with running in oil and run with a mineral based oil instead. Personally, I use running in oil to get the engine started and for a few kms, say up to 50, then I dump it and the filter and change to whatever regular oil I use. After that I just drive the car normally running through the rev range for about 500kms before giving it any curry. Really, I don't think there is a bad way to run in an engine other than to run it hot and at the same cadence for too long. IE, don't just take in on the hwy for 1000kms with the aircon on when it's 40 degrees outside. I am by no means an expert and have no scientific backing to my method. I've run in 4 engines so far an haven't had any issues. the first time I ran the running in oil for a full 1000kms, but I think that this was not the best idea. It's a bit thin to be using for so long. Scares you a bit because oil pressure is a fair bit lower running it. On the other hand, my newly rebuilt (on the cheap) engine smoked with running in oil and not with normal mobil 1, but it did turn out that some of the valve stem seals were leaking, so maybe it highlights some issues that may go un noticed.

Tonights adventures in valve stem seals was not for the faint hearted. Started out this morning around 10am with a blue slip inspection which did not go as planned. No issues with the half finished LPG conversion and no problems with smoke, in fact there has been no smoke since I changed the running in oil to regular oil, but he did have an issue with the pod filters and the after market exhaust, so it was back home to change them back to standard. Then on to pick up the Green Slip only to find that their systems were down so that took ages. Then the RTA was packed and that took ages. On to pick up tie rod ends only to find that the guy forgot to order them so another hour wasted as they went and picked them up. So, long story long, and it's 6 pm before I get started. After removing all the crap and the cams, Mark from Hills produced his nifty little tool which removes the valve caps and the fitting for compressed air via the spark plug hole to hold the valves up. Mark's instructions and step by step method was foolproof if done in sequence, well almost foolproof... All went well for the first 3 cylinders until Mark was showing me how to lock up so that he could go home, and was just putting a valve cap back on when suddenly there was this whistling noise coming from the valve and I looked down in horror to see no valve where one should have been! It seems that part of the lock up procedure is to turn off the power (as you would) which also unfortunately turned off the compressor which was slowly losing pressure until there was not enough to hold up the valve anymore. Needless to say I was crapping my pants at the stage, when Mark produced this tiny little magnet, a bent piece of wire and the coolest little video camera you've ever seen unless it's your doctor's and he's planning on sticking where the sun don't shine. Half an hour of jiggling through the spark plug hole and he had the valve back up though the correct hole. Phewww, new pair of undies and it was back to work. So... 12:45 AM and the valve stem seals are all changed and the cams are back on. A bit more to do tomorrow and it will be back up and running. The post mortem is that the seals were not too bad, but there were 5 or 6 seals that did show some evidence of some leaking, so it was not a wasted exercise.

Talking about headlights, anyone got any spare standard ones? I need some for the combined touring/targa car and I can't find any in the stash of parts.

No, in fact it's not smoking at all anymore, which is doing my head in. Need to run it longer to see what's really the cause.

Been for a drive up and down the street and will take it for another tomorrow. It seems to smoke some after a few minutes of idling on start, but not when driving. Head does sound very tappety though, more than normal. Smoke is not very pronounced, but it's there for a newly rebuilt engine, even for a cheap and nasty rebuild. Prior to the rebuild, it used to start smoking at stop lights after I'd been driving for about 15 minutes and go away when driving.

Yep, cheap quick and nasty rebuild. Worn race engine that had bad oil scraper ring and the head had already been rebuilt so I left it. My mistake so now I'm going to pay the piper. Fortunately the seals can be changed without removing the head, apparently. New skill to learn.

After what Neil did to his finger last week, I don't care the the gloves make me look like the tooth fairy. All that stuff was a bit depressing. I was starting to think that the other race car might not be too far away, but seeing it all piled together I see how much still needs to be done. Still some issues with the gas guzzler. Still have oil burning problems, even after the rebuild, so there's something else wrong. Could be head, which sounds very tapety, or maybe the turbos, though there was no evidence of an issue with either when they were off. May be up for a new head or head rebuild right quick!

Not quite finished with the brake conversion as the R32 rotor is too small and I can't seem to find a 33 rotor at the moment, but here's a mini howto on the conversion 1. Start by taking the hub off, you won't be able to do this on the car. 2. Remove all the handbrake stuff, it won't fit anymore and you'll need a hydraulic setup. 3. Turn it over and remove the big nut which frees the spring pin holder (talk about over engineered!) 4. Loosen the 4 hub bolts but don't remove them completely. Hit them gently with a hammer and the hub assembly will split into 3 parts. 5. Discard the dust plate, or use it as a hood ornament, you won't need it and it just gets in the way. 6. The next step involves the hub, but it may not be necessary. In order to fit a 32 front rotor I had to mill off a little from the lugs at each stud. I did this on the belt linisher, but any grinder will do. Depending on your rotor, you may not need to do this. I also removed the big chunk of metal that is used to hold the hand-brake pivot we removed, but this is also not necessary as it doesn't get in the way. 7. Because of a quirk in the design, the factory position for the rear brakes is higher than necessary for the front brakes to fit. It also happens to be just about centered over a 32 rotor and presumably a 33 rotor. This mean that you don't need a dog bone and actually need to move the mounting points closer to the hub. To do this, I mounted the plate in the milling machine and milled the mounting posts at the same height as original, just closer in to the hub. 8. The last step is to drill out new mounting points and re-assemble everything. Hopefully, all you will need is a few washers as spacers to make sure it all lines up. I'll post more photos when it's all finished (once I find the R33 rotors)

And mostly only on Sundays, with a few extra days thrown in here and there. Cage should be finished tomorrow. More or less the same as the RWB car, with a few less bars due to the regs it's running in. It's got the extra protection of a bar added to the rear strut towers. An extra safety only modification that is permitted under the rules Brake modifications are underway. I'll post instructions on success. Definitively not a bolt on option, but I would say worthwhile for anyone doing a front brake upgrade and having brakes and rotors left over with nothing to do with them. You do need a press and someone with a bit of machining skills, but if everything goes to plan from here, and we all know that it always does, then it's not too bad. Worst thing about it is that the DBA 4000 rotors that only just this weekend made their way on to my road car will have to come back off and the old ones back on again. Somehow I don't think the factory rotors would hold up all that well on the RWB car, have a look at Duncan's avatar if theirs any doubt.

The hicas modification is easy and could easily be done in car on a hoist, or off the ground if you were not afraid to have weld spit up on you.

The UAS aluminium cradle bushes will take care of some of the problems and will give you the same results as the ones I welded on. This applies to the cradle to chassis mounting points only. The suspension mounting points are also beneficial, but I would say less so than the raising the whole cradle, which the UAS bushes will accomplish. It's an easy and relatively cheap first step that is not in any way wasted if you decide to have the other mounting points done.

It's very purty! Don't know much about gearboxes, but from the looks this is a helical gear set and I think we're after a straight cut. As to which one to use, again can't really help. Have hear of problems with 6 speed, but if it's been upgraded then who knows.

Andrew, interested in the gearbox, what are the specs? As for the cradle, you can get 90% of the benefit cheaper and easier by buying off the shelf parts. We went all the way, but you can do most of it by buying the parts from Just Jap and UAS. My suggestion would be to use the alloy cradle mount bushes from UAS, and all the suspension arms from Just Jap. The cradle mounts will drop you about 25 - 30mm and make it solid mount, and the arms will give you all the rose joint stiffness and adjustment. The other modifications for hicas removal and raising the mounting points are good, but they are the expensive parts and the only give you a limited amount of improvement, the above will give you the best benefits per buck, and other than pushing out the old cradle bushes, the rest is very easy to do, most of the work is in dropping the cradle and loosening all the old, rusted on, never turned in 20 years bolts.

It's more of a best available location on the cradle. If you wanted to just put a bolt through it, you could put it anywhere on the cradle, but as we wanted to braket it from 3 sides, this was the best location.

That's my raceworx moo moo!

We can make that if we get our gearbox issues sorted.

Yes, a very gratifying day today. The old girl now has one of the tightest rear ends in the business. Lift up her skirt and she's wearing some very pretty knickers with lots of flashy colours. And Duncan's engine with it's brand new block and crank sounded like one of the smoothest best balanced engines I have heard after a rebuild, and I have heard a few. That may have been partially to do with the fact that it was idling @ 1500, but hey it still sounded good

Bosch 044 is rated to 330 L/hour and 520kw which is a 30% safety margin on 400kw, but hey it's your money, spend it as you like.

Dual 044 will be overkill, but then it doesn't hurt as it just returns the excess. Last thing you want to do is run out of fuel and lean out no. 6

400kw is quite a lot for an in tank. I've got a formula somewhere which works out the fuel required, but suffice it to say that with that much power you should run a surge tank and an external pump. 044 should be fine. I made the mistake of buying a high pressure pump as a lift pump. It will work, but it's not required. You can get a Fedtro solid state fuel pump for $25 which will lift 130L per hour, more than enough and very reliable. Also comes with fuel filter. While I'm at it, supplier has brake proportioning valvels new at around $70.

CAMS are not that strict, in many cases you can self certify as long as it meets the guidelines. If you wanted both, I'd certify CAMS first but don't apply the sticker. Get your ANDRA certification then apply the CAMS sticker.

Wait, stop, don't do it! Cut holes in the floor that is. Absolutely not need to cut holes. Best approach is to make up a triangular platform in the corner behind each door to bring it up to level with the step. Tak the step, make your bar, cut the taks to drop the step and the bar, do your welding and put the step back up and weld it all. All good cages I have seen use this method. allows you to properly weld the main hoop without having to move it too far forward or back.

Brake bias is largely subject to the drivers feel and there is no exact right answer. Some like a little lock up to let the rear end loose to encourage a bit of oversteer. In the wet, where your tyres can lock too easily and aquaplane, turn the rear down to make the car a little more controllable. Many, many people change the front brakes, myself and Duncan included, without changing the rear and just leaving the factory proportioning valve in place. Done partly because we are cheap, but mostly because the rules don't mention a proportioning valve being allowed and it just doesn't seem to be necessary in most cases. Of the hundreds of Targa cars and combined touring cars that I have seen with upgraded front brakes, I can only remember 2 that had adjustable proportioning valves, and one of the was an N13 GTiR which had to run standard 14" wheels and had a very unusual brake setup. That being said, my back end did come loose in the rain and sort of send me over a cliff, so maybe they should be in more cars! One thing you do need to make sure to do if you do put one in is to remove the factory one. It's a little square box near the clutch slave cylinder. Lucky for us Nissan provides us with a little joining block on the driver side wheel arch in the engine bay that is generally removed when doing a custom brake setup with a proportioning valve and no ABS, so you can use it for just this problem!

There's a pic of our back a few pages. From memory I picked it up for about $60. It goes on the rear line with the front a straight through.